Social Issues

Claims of racism hurled at Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue degrade minority cultures in China more than the photos themselves.

If tuning in to Al Jazeera or BBC to learn about the crisis in Syria, one would get an image of that: a crisis. The country has fallen into chaos. Syria’s “Arab Spring” that started over two years ago was once filled with optimism and hope, but the outlook today on Syria seems bleak and [...]

Being told that the would be given updated, biometric passports that would allow them to travel easier, the Chinese government lured Tibetans in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) to give up their old travel documents last year. Not only did they not receive the new passports but their old ones were not returned. Due to [...]

The municipal government of Jakarta recently announced that it’s going mobilize a team of 2,000 scavengers to clean the city’s streets as an answer to a growing garbage problem. What is interesting is that they said they are going to pay each of these new sanitation employees 2 million rupiah per month, which is around [...]

Ernesto Sirolli recently delivered a powerful TED talk where he pointed out the failings of international aid and proposed a new model for development. He now shares more of this vision of facilitating entrepreneurship around the world with Vagabond Journey.

Over half a million families live in the streets of Metro Manila. Go behind the scenes and meet one of them.

The Mekong River is currently under siege by a proposal for a major dam on the river’s main stream in northern Laos. Recently, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam agreed to put construction of the Xayaburi Dam on hold until an official impact assessment can be made of the potentially adverse environmental, social, economic, and food security effects of [...]

Construction of the Xayaburi Dam, the first of eleven dams planned for the Mekong River, was postponed on December 8th, as Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam concurred that more data is needed on the potentially adverse environmental and social impacts of the project. Many environmental and social groups working in the region applaud the decision, [...]

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico- “Alcoholism, poverty, violence, I think that those things are made bigger by economic strife,” spoke Rachael Albers, an education/ theater social activist from the USA who has been working in Chiapas for the past couple of years. I was interviewing Rachael as part of an investigations into the various cultural spheres of Chiapas, and she was laid out for me the socio/ political/ historical background of Chalchihuitan, an indigenous community an hour and a half north of San Cristobal, where she coordinates a theater group of young women, called Las Jades, in conjunction with the local high school.